ACORN, a nationwide union that uses direct action and community organising to build power for tenants, is launching a local branch that will include Salford on Tuesday 30th January 6:30pm at Friends Meeting House in Manchester.

ACORN, which classes itself as an 'anti-poverty and tenants union' is launching in Greater Manchester with an event at Friends Meeting House in Manchester on Tuesday 30th January.

"We stop evictions, lobby landlords for repairs and campaign for policy change" states ACORN which already has branches in Bristol, Brighton and Sheffield.

In Sheffield the union successfully resisted the eviction of a family; in Bristol it managed to stop a rise in council tax for 16,000 of Bristol's poorest residents, and in Brighton students won £64,000 in compensation after committing to a rent strike.

ACORN member Sam Walker said he joined the union "Because the relationship between landlord and tenant is fundamentally unequal, like that of employer and employee. Tenants need a union the same way workers do, to address the imbalance of power and represent their interests."

His sentiments are echoed by ACORN organizer, Imogen Woods: "Not only has my personal experience renting been horrendous, but the housing crisis will not be solved anytime soon without collective action" she says "We won't get what we not only want, but need, unless we demand it."

At the ACORN launch event members will be voting to decide its first big campaign locally.

Don't know who these people are as i have not had chance to look them up yet.I can tell you one thing though, if they are allowed to use the Friends Meeting House, this is owned by the Quakers. They will have been vetted by them. The Quakers have always been good at social housing, the best in fact, don't know why but it's true.I must have a nosey.